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Adding Four More, Omeros Has Now Unlocked 46 Orphan GPCRs

SEATTLE,
Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Omeros Corporation (NASDAQ: OMER) today announced that it has identified compounds that functionally interact with each of four additional orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Without compounds that functionally interact with orphan GPCRs, developing drugs targeting those receptors is extremely difficult. Omeros has now unlocked 46 Class A orphan GPCRs, representing almost 60 percent of these targets and equaling the number of GPCRs that are targeted by over 30 percent of all marketed drugs. There are approximately 120 orphan GPCRs and Omeros expects to unlock an even larger percentage of them, focusing first on Class A orphans.

The four additional orphan GPCRs unlocked by Omeros are GPR65/TDAG8, GPR82, MRGE and MRGF. GPR65/TDAG8 has been linked to several types of cancer and to inflammatory disorders, such as asthma. GPR82 is linked to appetite and body weight. MRGE has been linked to pain, and MRGF, which like MRGE is expressed in dorsal root ganglia, is also likely associated with pain. Omeros is in the process of filing broad patent applications around the orphan GPCRs that it has unlocked and compound optimization efforts are in progress.

"Using our proprietary high-throughput assay, we continue to unlock orphan GPCRs – finding functionally active and structurally diverse compounds – and, for a number of those receptors, generating compelling preclinical data," said
Gregory A. Demopulos, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer of Omeros. "Through medicinal chemistry, we are selectively optimizing some of these compounds. The results of these collective efforts further expand our intellectual property estate, and we expect that we will exclusively control the commercial rights to each of the GPCRs that we unlock."